just finished a couple of very good books on Robert Rogers. real interesting character. great detail on the French & Indian War.

"War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier" by John F. Ross"White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery And Vengeance in Colonial America" by Stephen Brumwell

also finishing up "Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos" by Roger Warner. great detail/info on that splendid little war. you can see the train wreck coming when the war goes from being in the shadows in the early 60s to broad daylight when in '65 we basically invade (yes, invade) South Viet Nam and that war zooms outta control. the Laos sideshow suffers directly from the same affects. side note: when I was a kid in the late 60s/early 70s, my family were expats in several SE Asia countries. One of the CIA paramilitary guys mentioned in the book was one of my dad's poker buddies.

The real Army, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That's the army in which I should like to fight.” ― Jean Lartéguy

Another interesting geography book. The "ten maps" are a letdown, they're basic Mercator projections and you've seen them before. The book is excellent.

Basically, Marshall divides the world into spheres of influence and explains the effect that geographical features have had on each region's economic and politics. India and China don't like each other, but they won't have a war because the world's highest and most impassable mountain range lies between them. Europe and the USA both have huge, navigable river systems, which makes trade and economic growth much easier than in, say, Africa or South America. Putin had to go to war for Crimea, not just because of the warm water port, but also because Ukraine is flat and has a border just 300 miles from Moscow.

He's very succinct, almost that succinct, and there are 260 pages of those little factoids. It's a shallow survey of world events, but I even learned a few new things in the Latin America section, which was very good.

He also adds a nice layer of human geography over the physical world, which he uses to explain conflicts in Africa and the Middle East ("Even the name, "Middle East," refers to the region's position vis a vis Europe.")

The book overstates the importance of geography on human culture and history, imho, but that's sort of the point. It's a ground-up perspective on what happened. His coda on Arctic and space exploration extrapolates his methods into crystal ball territory, which is very interesting. After reading it, you can't help but think that Russia will end up controlling the whole mess because Canada and the USA can't get our collective shit together.

Worth a look!

"4 cylinder Camaro=communism" El Presidente

"You can smoke salmon but it's not quite the same as smoking heroin." nanuq

I found very little of the book to actually be about his time with the Scouts, but his childhood in Kenya (I lived there for years so can relate) and his adventures prior to his service are hilarious; at least it got me snickering, and I found his writing style throughout quite entertaining.

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